2.0 out of 5 starsPurchase At Your Own Risk!
EDIT: As of 1/5/2012 I am now highly recommending this device, providing certain conditions are met, as described in my update below. If you would like to review the issues history, read on; if not, jump down to the 1/15 update

On paper - this phone is amazing. And in many ways it is. The screen is brilliant (and surprisingly manageable given its large size)...

Update after repair #2: GPS gradually failed after being repaired by Samsung. I sent it in for repairs a second time and it came back with only a software update. GPS now only marginally works - very long lock times and even a single tree causes it to lose lock.

Overall I've found that Sprint's service never works when I need it. I keep getting errors about my Sprint username and password while in the Sierra mountain range and I had no data services for the weekend. Sprint support later told me that this is normal and the fix is to manually update the PRL while on Sprint's network. In other words: drive for hours into a Sprint network, update the PRL, and drive for hours to get back. The PRL can not be updated by any other means. The phone has no data services at Disneyland. The phone had no data services when I tried to find a restaurant during SF's Fleet Week. The phone had no data services when I was last in downtown San Jose. The phone had no data services when I was in an urban residential area last night. Go to any outdoor event and this phone is the only one in the crowd that's dead. It shows a strong 3G or 4G signal but it becomes hot, runs the battery dead, and says you're not connected to the Internet.

Skip it.

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Update after repair #1:Samsung replaced an unspecified component under warranty and GPS now usually works (sometimes needs a reboot). Battery life is significantly worse! I have WiFi on, IMAP email checks every 15 minutes, and weather updates every 3 hours. Everything else is off and no other user processes are running. At best it may run for 22 hours without being used or moved. It still tends to randomly heat up and run the battery dead with no interaction. This isn't a phone to rely on.

The Sprint forums are still buzzing with complaints about GPS, poor reception, short battery life, and audio crashing.

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I loved this phone when I first got it - Fast, light weight, slim, great camera, and a big screen. You can check off all the boxes on your list of cool hardware to have. Unfortunately, it doesn't work well enough to be practical. I've sent it back to Samsung under warranty even though I'll probably get back a phone equally defective.

Live voice quality is usually serviceable but there are still cases where I need a landline. Sprint's voicemail is completely unintelligible; a babbling robot. I wish I could disable voicemail so people wouldn't waste their time leaving me a message that I can't understand. Downloading the voicemail to a desktop computer doesn't help.

GPS does not work on many phones. You may have seen demonstrations where the phone instantly gets a GPS lock, or even works inside a building. Those demonstrations use cell tower assistance. GPS can be inaccurate by miles in rural areas and completely incapable of maintaining a lock in weak service areas. If you do use cell tower assistance, you must consent to Google continuously collecting information.

The phone randomly gets hot from stuck processes and runs the battery dead. I'm seeing this problem mostly when I'm in an area with marginal cell service. Speculation is that this happens when WiFi tries to go to sleep, but I don't always have it on. Going hiking or driving in remote areas pretty much guarantees a dead battery by evening. The only workaround is to keep the phone off or reboot it regularly.

Multi-channel sound crashes due to a firmware or hardware defect. Check any game website about compatibility with this phone - you must turn off the sound or the game will crash.

The "LOS" (Loss Of Signal) issue. Certain conditions will cause the cell radio to stop working. The reception bars will be replaced with Ý and the phone will need to be rebooted. There's no alert for this happening so you're missing calls.

SPRINT DOES NOT PROVIDE WARRANTY SERVICE. You have a 30 day trial period. After that, all warranty repairs require sending the phone to Samsung. Samsung's web site is dysfunctional so hopefully you have a landline to call them. Total turnaround time is estimated at two weeks.

In conclusion, you'll get hit by firmware bugs, Sprint will keep resetting your phone until 30 days pass, you'll send your phone to Samsung for two weeks, get back a phone with the same bugs, and repeat until you figure out how to get a refund.

Phone was great when I first got it for almost two months. then the updates happend and ICS man now my phone will not stay charged for more that 6 hrs. data cuts out. facebook other apps crash and stops working. and phone now gets realy hot when you try and use it for a long time. working with sprint to try and resolve this. my advice stay away from this phone.

We had the Samsung Galaxy and that worked pretty well so when I saw the ads for the Galaxy II with bigger screen, faster processor, and more features I was excited. At first it worked well, but then I had constant problems with Swype-no matter how I adjust the settings-Swype almost always chooses the wrong words. If I talk into the mic to use speech recognition again it almost always uses the wrong words.

Aside from that the battery life is pathetic. Within one month the battery would last only three hours on a charge. Sprint told me I would have to call Samsung, but Samsung said they never replace batteries even if it is one day old and defective. Don't think this kind of lousy service would happen with Apple.

In addition, the phone is having constant brain farts where it freezes up for no reason-and sometimes they can last ten minutes. I also has brain farts while texting where you try to Swype a letter on the left side of the keyboard and it will not recognize it.

Finally, the reception is much worse than the Galaxy one and so is the volume control to the point of barely being able to hear someone. The Iphone may not have the large screen but I'd rather have quality than a big heap of garbage that has all sorts of bells and whistles-most of which do not even work!

Having had cell phones since they became affordable to the average consumer, I have to say "How long has the future been here and what have I been doing since then?"Played around with friends' Iphone 4, and 4s and they are nice. Apple really set the bar high for cell phones, but haven't really moved since then. Samsung really stepped up on this one. The phone can call, it can text (you can just speak and it will write the text for you), it also has a wicked swype option that makes finger texting so much easier, it can film a video and then post it to Youtube, it plays games, it has so many options I just can't see making you read about all of them. Battery life with heavy use is relative to how the phone is connected, but you need to remember that this device is more powerful than the first laptops. After it finished initial charge at 17:30 I spent the next six hours setting it up, using the phone, watching vids, texting, downloading books and games for free, playing said games, and at around 23:30 I had 16% left and it recommended I top it off. How is that even possible? Six hours! Ridiculous. It has a decent heft but so thin! How did they sandwich all those squirrels inside? I am completely blown away. This is only day two, so it still has time to catch fire and explode, but until it does that, it will be the most EPIC device I have ever purchased. Video chat? Yeah it has that. So amazing.

EDIT-So now it is over four months later, let's review. Battery life seems to be less with the latest upgrade, but they ARE ten bucks AND you can replace them yourself you GENIUS you. Also, the processor does get a bit hot from time to time, mostly in 4G. It has crashed while running an app or two. What micro pc/phone doesn't? That said, still chugging away like a boss. The plastic case seems engineered to come off in a fall. No damage yet, several tumbles on linoleum, concrete, asphalt, and even a sofa. Oh, and no case for me thanks. This thing really doesn't look it, but it is pretty tough. Ninja Phone. Sits right in any pocket. Why hasn't the glass scratched yet? Just what did they do to those gorillas? Don't fear this thing if you have no skills. You can figure it out. If you have smallish hands then this is a mini tablet for sure. My hands are on the larger side and it is perfect for me. The Swype feature can help even sausage fingers text like crazy. What an amazing device. I just rubbed the screen with my t-shirt. Looks brand new. Works like it was new.

I love the huge Super AMOLED screen - very vibrant and saturated. The phone is still very pocketable. The battery is good but not great. I wish they have a white phone version. I had initial problems with reception but firmware update seems to do the trick. Sprint 4G service is spotty and slow.

I am one of those people who read every review that I can get my hands on before buying big ticket items. To be honest, I was vacillating between the new iPhone and the Galaxy S II. I would stop in at our local Sprint store to check out the features of the phones and what other reviewers had commented on. With that said, I chose the Samsung over the iPhone and could not be happier with my decision.

Here is what I especially like about this phone:

--It is extremely light weight.--It is easy to maneuver between the different apps.--The battery life is pronominal (I charged it when I first got the phone, used it all the next day, calling, texting, emailing and playing games and STILL have not had to recharge it)!--It links with my Samsung tablet.--In a pinch, I can use the phone as a hotspot.

The only draw back (and this really isn't a draw back) is that there are few cases for this phone to protect it or to clip it on a belt.

I have enjoyed everything about this phone in very way. I matched up against other friends phones, watched reviews on Attack of the Show as well as other shows, used it for personal and business use, and have been happy in every way. Apps, camera, video, natigation, contact lists.... Everything.... Perfect!